Leominster council wants answers (SLIDESHOW)

School budget problems at center of controversy

Milo Swicker, who will be entering kindergarten in the fall, joins Leominster teachers as they protest outside City Hall Wednesday while the School Department budget was being presented to the City Council. SENTINEL & ENTERPRISE PHOTOS / Ashley Green

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LEOMINSTER -- In preparation for their vote on the city budget, city councilors met with school officials Wednesday evening to ask why the district is facing significant deficits and what steps it can take to repair itself in the future.

"Have a discussion, yell at each other if you have to, but tell us how we got in this situation," At-large Councilor told Superintendent Jim Joliceour and business administrator Glenn Fratto during their budget presentation.

As Joliecouer and Fratto explained, the pressures facing the district, including cuts of staffing and programming, result from a "perfect storm" of inadequate state education funding and increasing costs of transportation and health insurance. However, Fratto also indicated that some of the issues lie within the city's budgeting practices for education.

He referred to the reliance in recent years on school choice revenue and federal Medicaid reimbursements in order to pay off costs like transportation as one contributing factor.

"In my quick assessment, the budget approved by the school department took into consideration those other revenue sources and up until last year they were sufficient to meet net school spending. Last year the scales tipped," Fratto said, explaining that $1.3 million of last year's school choice revenues were used to offset retiree health insurance costs. "That's a problem built into the school budget that was carried into this year and will be carried into future years.

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Fratto also alluded to the funding directly from the city, explaining that Leominster does meet state education spending minimums but by less than one percent for eight of the last nine years.

"The mayor's proposal meets net school spending, but by one percent. It's as if we're not treated as all the other municipal departments. It's as if the school department is treated like a different child," Fratto said.

Members of the School Committee voted to approve a school budget of $70,846,875 that would have still created 74 layoffs, but not the 96.4 initially projected by the district. The draft of the school budget proposed by the mayor, which accounted for a 5.6 million reduction in spending on school expenses and transportation, is expected by Fratto to lead to more cuts and layoffs.

"There are ramifications that are just incomprehensible if that $5 million reduction is approved by the council," he warned. "If you approve the proposal by the mayor, we're talking 170 to 200 more people (being laid off)."

Mutliple members of the council suggested that one way to improve the situation would be to have a more detailed account of what schools are spending money on.

"There are a lot of factors converging to this point that have caused this problem, but we have an expense budget that was over $23 million, but that's all we have for that line and we have nothing else breaking down that number," said Ward 4 Councilor Mark Bodanza.

Council President David Cormier agreed.

"I think if we were told we need $50 million to run the city side of the budget, but weren't told where it was being spent, we'd be going wild," he said.

Councilors also questioned various expenses within the budget, particularly city charge backs and how they are calculated.

Wednesday's evening was heavily attended by members of the public and Leominster teachers, who spent the hours leading up to the meeting picketing outside City Hall.

"I think just the fact we're all out here with each other has helped a lot today. They feel the support coming from each other," said teacher union President Jenn Kifer.

Protesters began picketing outside City Hall after 4 p.m. and remained their until the budget hearing got under way at 6 p.m. Kifer said that protesters got some negative reactions from drivers and passersby, but the majority of the response was positive.

Although the City Council is unable to add any money to the school budget before them, protesters hoped their demonstration would at least gain their support.

"We want to have the council push back and ask for the budget that the School Committee approved," Kifer said.

This point was also shared by Priest Street School teacher Andy Pineo.

"I'd like to see the City Council fail the budget and have the mayor take a look at it again," he said.

Pineo said that his wife also works in the district and all three of their children attend school in Leominster despite living in outside the city.

Among the crowd outside City Hall was Ward 5 Councilor Richard Marchand who was holding a sign along with the other picketers.

"I'm a teacher and I know exactly how these guys feel right now. And for me as a city councilor, I can't understand why we can't help out the School Department," he said.

However, when asked how he might vote on the school budget before the council, Marchand referred to the consequences of not approving it.

"It's an inclusive budget and we have to make a decision. If we don't we'd go to a one-twelfth budget and would be lacking operational expenses from the very beginning," he said. "If it's going to be one-twelfth it'll be hard to pull off."

Although several members of the School Committee were present for the meeting, Mayor Dean Mazzarella, who chairs the committee, said he would not be present as he typically does not attend every department's budget presentation.

"I typically don't go to these and just leave it up to them," Mazzarella said prior to the meeting.

However, the mayor did share new ways the school department is exploring to save money thanks to a unanimous vote by the School Committee Monday night.

The vote, which was to ask school department unions to agree to a one percent reduction to their annual raises, would create a savings of $470,082. That savings could allow the district to hire back 11.04 teachers.

The City Council is expected to vote on the budget during their June 26 meeting.

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